Online extra: Toyo's Hawk values people above all

WHITE, Ga.—Plant managers usually have three main priorities: people, quality and production. For James Hawk, people are No. 1.

Hawk, Rubber & Plastics News' 2013 Executive of the Year, said everything starts with people, and if that isn't the No. 1 priority, there is a problem. The president of Toyo Tire North America Manufacturing Inc. and chairman of Toyo Tire Holdings of Americas Inc.'s main focus is the safety of both his employees and his customers.

“His style was unusual for me because he doesn't focus on production first,” said Steve Wesner, senior director of quality at Toyo Tire North America Manufacturing. “He focuses on the safety and the quality first. He truly believes that if you center your actions around providing a good safe environment and intend to produce a high quality product, the productivity will come.”

Hawk knows how important his job is because he has seen how management can directly affect the lives of the employees under its care. His father worked for Firestone for 39 years and nine months. Hawk knew the exact month because his father was given a choice: early retirement or get laid off. It was a lesson that hit home.

His other reminder sits on top of his bookshelf: a brick from Continental Tire's Akron facility.

Hawk had to oversee the demolition of the plant. The facility had become a liability for the company. Its wood floors were a potential fire hazard, and the cost to maintain the building was too much after it had expanded in other areas. So the firm closed the plant and eliminated all of the jobs. The employees were offered jobs to transfer to other union facilities. Some did, but Hawk estimates that 90 percent were just laid off.

“I'm very careful when I hire new employees,” Hawk said. “I don't have this mentality that we're just going to staff up and staff down. When I hire somebody, I want them to be able to retire from this business. I want to make sure, to the best of my ability, that it's a permanent job.”

Despite the economic downturn in 2008, Toyo Tire & Rubber Co. Ltd. went ahead with its third expansion to the White facility. The firm came out of the downturn ahead of the competition. Hawk estimates that had Toyo not decided to expand, it would have been set back at least two years.

But that doesn't mean times were great. The company still experienced about a 20 percent drop in sales, according to Hawk. The executive was operating under tighter constraints, but he refused to lay off any of his employees.

The plant cut production by about 20 percent, then monitored it week-by-week. Hawk eliminated overtime and instructed managers not to fill shifts if it wasn't necessary when someone called off or took vacation. When employees retired or quit, the company didn't fill those positions. Regular employees also were slotted into jobs that were designated for temp-to-hire employees.

“We did not have a layoff—we kept our folks working,” said Don Waterhouse, director of human resources and general affairs at Toyo Tires North America Manufacturing. “We just stopped the hiring and kept our people busy. Some of the jobs we had people doing were what we called non-value added jobs, but we put our folks into those and kept them working.”

Hawk said the plant carried some extra employees during that time. But he said that was his decision.

“I could have easily just said we're going to lay off 50 people and be more aggressive on the manning of hours, but I wasn't going to do that, period,” Hawk said. “I'm the one who took the accountability to carry the extra manpower. You go through chaos when you lay off people because you have to go by seniority, and you're going to end up laying somebody off in the wrong operation or the wrong area that you have to back train.”

He's not just protecting his employee's jobs, but he's also protecting their lives too.

“He promotes safety first. It's very, very important to him,” said Don Bunn, director of technical services at Toyo Tire North America Manufacturing. “Every meeting we have kicks off with safety. I know he's hurt pretty badly when someone gets injured. He takes it personal.”

Hawk discusses any issues that came about over the last 24 hours. The plant provides training in conjunction with the local paramedic and fire department for volunteer first responders, all of whom wear red shirts. Their job is to respond to any incident—whether someone gets sick or hurt on the floor—and take charge. They tend to the individual, assess the situation and make the decision whether or not to call the paramedics.

The facility also has volunteer safety representatives who wear green shirts. Their job is to evaluate constantly and find new ways to improve the traffic flow, the safety of the equipment and the process. For instance, every fork lift truck driver must get a license to operate that machinery. If they do something wrong, their license gets pulled, and they have to be retrained.

Every situation is evaluated. Hawk said he always asks what the company did wrong rather than blaming the employee for the situation. If it's an unsafe condition, Hawk will see to it that it gets fixed. But if it's an unsafe act, it comes back to behavior. Hawk said behavior is the hardest thing to fix, and the only way to do it is through constant reinforcement and training.

“You have a lot of excuses to potentially have accidents, injuries and property damage,” Hawk said. “I want these people to protect themselves. I want to protect them. I have a personal responsibility. I tell them all the time that safety is a shared responsibility. I'm responsible for them the moment they walk through that gate.”

If anyone leaves the facility having to go to an emergency room, the safety manager is required to call Hawk. It doesn't matter what time it is.

“I want to know that they're OK,” Hawk said. “I want to know that they're getting good care, and I want to know what happened. I personally feel responsible for the safety of our employees. I want to protect them. I don't want to expose them to any danger.”